Stop Asking About Your Rank Already

We are always upfront with prospective SEO clients regarding how we measure the success of an SEO campaign. We explain that SEO is a long-term process and that it will take time to start seeing an ROI, especially in a competitive niche. We measure the success of an SEO campaign by looking at many factors over the course of a 6+ month time period including time spent on the site, bounce rate, referral sources, keywords that generated visitors and the most important- number of visitors to the site. Notice that we did not mention rank, that’s because we don’t pay attention to rank as a measure of SEO success!

Website owners have become so obsessed with tracking the rank of their site that they are losing sight of what actually matters, and that is gaining visitors to the site that are likely to convert. Yes, a prominent ranking correlates with more visitors to the site- but your site may never reach that coveted number 1 position for a competitive keyword, it might not even ever crack the top 5. That’s why website owners need to shift their focus and work on what they can do, which is implement an SEO campaign that will generate more traffic from not only the search engines, but from the web as a whole.

Rankings aren’t a reliable indication of SEO success since they fluctuate so much. A website can rank number 4 for a specific keyword one week and then be listed at number 9 the next. This doesn’t mean that those that are responsible for your SEO have all of a sudden done something wrong and should be punished. It just means that your website has fallen victim to one of the many changing factors that determine where a website will show up in the search results on any particular day. There’s a good chance that just as you start to freak out over your number 9 position, you will bounce right back up again.

One of the factors that contribute to the fluctuation of a rank is the personalization of search. One person might see your website listed at number 5 and another might see it at number 7. This is due to the location of the searcher based on IP address or GPS information on a mobile device. When searching in Google, when signed in to a Google account (ANY Google account- Google Talk, Gmail, Android device, Google+ etc.) you will see different results than if you aren’t signed in, same thing goes for Bing if you are signed into Facebook. The search engines take your search history and what your social connections are up to into account. The ever-changing algorithm also makes it tough to use rank as a legitimate way to measure SEO success. Sure, there are the huge algorithm updates that we read about, but really it’s being tweaked more often than we know and there’s no way to know what exactly each of them entails. Both minor and major updates can result in your website shifting around on the search engine results page by a few positions.

While we understand how website owners can become obsessed with rank, we don’t condone that behavior. Of course a significant drop off the charts is something to worry about, but besides that- focus on visitor growth instead.

Read What Full Service SEO Clients Say About SEO Firm Brick Marketing

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"went above and beyond to help us with any SEO issues"

“We hired Brick Marketing to manage our SEO, but they ended up also managing our company blog, social media marketing, helped us launch a pay per click advertising campaign, migrated our website to a new domain and so much more! Our SEO Specialist is always quick to respond whenever we had a question and went above and beyond to help us with any SEO issues.”

– Mory Creighton, CEO, Pinpoint Laser Systems

"Brick Marketing has been a tremendous resource for our business"

“Brick Marketing has been a tremendous resource for our business. Through their expertise with the ever changing world of SEO, our web presence is as strong as ever. Our working relationship with Nick Stamoulis and Danielle Bachini has been outstanding. In collaboration with web designer Chris Roberts, we were also able to develop the perfect responsive website that truly reflects our business. Thank you Brick Marketing!​”

– Ellen Parlee, Parlee Farms

"traffic has increased over 80% year-over-year"

“When we started working with Brick Marketing, we had just been subjected to a Google algorithm update and our websites both took substantial hits to traffic. Within a few months, Brick has taken both of our websites to pre-algorithm traffic and conversion levels, and for the CallFinder site, the traffic has increased over 80% year-over-year. Their expertise in SEO, responsive design, and content marketing helped us turn the situation around, and we could not be happier with the results we’ve seen in just our first four months of working with them. The team we work with at Brick Marketing is always available for off-the-cuff consultations and are at the ready to provide recommendations and suggestions to improve our site’s appearance and performance. They are truly a hands-on partner, which is immensely valuable to our business.​”

"Our keyword rankings have improved and traffic has increased"

“The Brick Marketing team, was critical to ensuring that our new Web site is optimized to drive maximum traffic. Our keyword rankings have improved and traffic has increased thanks to her assistance and advice. In addition, they executed a strategic link building program that helped further increase Web traffic.”

– Lauren LaFronz, Director of Marketing, enChoice, Inc.

"Brick Marketing is levels above all others...an integral part of my team"

“I have formed an invaluable marketing partnership with Brick Marketing. Nick Stamoulis and the rest of the Brick Marketing team are professional, timely, thorough and take time to, not only succeed at the tasks, but also educate myself and my team on the strategies in the process. Since my first encounter working with Brick, I’ve changed organizations and have taken them along with me…they are that good! In my experience in working with many outside agencies who over-promise and under-communicate, I can truly state that Brick Marketing is levels above all others and vested in our relationship. They are not just an SEO consultant, but an integral part of my team. I highly recommend Brick Marketing for any company looking to significantly increase search engine competitiveness and internet presence.​”

– Jodi Murphy, Marketing Director EUXmedia

"superior knowledge of marketing on the internet"

“I have had the good fortune to work with SEO expert Nick Stamoulis and his team at Brick Marketing and it was clear form the get go that Nick had superior knowledge of marketing on the internet. The SEO campaign and technical writing that Brick Marketing provides has been impressive, where in the past we struggled to find the high levels of competence in these two skill sets. Were only just beginning with Brick Marketing and look forward to growing with their expert guidance. Thank you Nick Stamoulis and the Brick Marketing team!”

– Craig Raubenheimer, President, Roan Solutions, Inc.

"Brick Marketing is "solid" when it comes to support for SEO marketing advice"

“I had been impressed for a long time with the content that Brick Marketing was sharing in their informative blog posts and articles. I chatted with Nick Stamoulis a couple times and decided that he was the expert I wanted to work with. I have worked with Brick Marketing for about six months and they have helped us resolve several SEO related issues pertaining to our website. Our account rep is always just an email away with answers to any questions I have and suggestions for how we can improve what we’re doing. Brick Marketing is “solid” when it comes to support for SEO marketing advice. I definitely recommend them if you want to feel more secure about how your website is performing in searches and have the confidence that everything being done to improve your rank is white hat and legit.”

– Paul Rarick, Debbiegrattan.com

"dependable, professional SEO company"

“Brick Marketing has been a dependable, professional SEO company that has helped us get results. In the last 6 months of using their services, visits to our website have increased by almost 30%. Our dedicated SEO Specialist was pleasant to deal with. Her suggestions for articles and press releases were industry specific. Brick Marketing always answered our phone calls and emails within an hour which made us feel valued as a client. I would recommend Brick Marketing to all businesses to handle their SEO needs.”

– JoAnne Loftus, Archival Designs, Inc.

"Brick Marketing is rock solid and essential in building a strong marketing foundation."

“Brick Marketing is extremely valuable for feedback and advice in many aspects of marketing, not just SEO and I look forward to continuing to work with them over the long term to continually improve our business and increase sales. That’s what it’s all about. Just like their name implies, Brick Marketing is rock solid and essential in building a strong marketing foundation.”

– Jeff Nicholson, President Freely Creative, Inc. / Websticker.com

"highly recommend Brick Marketing to all of my clients"

“After working with many other SEO firms and not being satisfied I finally was introduced to the Brick Marketing President and Founder, Nick Stamoulis. Nick Stamoulis has educated me about SEO and has provided me with a well rounded SEO package, not only does he offer top quality services he also educates his clients and spends the time to explain everything and their SEO pricing is competitive. I will highly recommend Brick Marketing to all of my clients. Brick Marketing is an A+ for SEO services.”